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I had a lot of fun recently making up a couple of commissions for a chap who’d seen my work at a craft fair in the summer and very kindly kept one of my cards in case he ever found himself in need of a monster!

Without further ado, meet Scarlett Sullivan and the ‘Abominable’ Bartholemew Cox (along with Tilly who’s just sniffing them out to see if she likes them)

Scarlett Sullivan has an unhealthy addiction to strawberries. Doctors have told her she must cut back or else risk turning red and developing a pointy bottom. She’s tried electronic strawberries, strawberry patches, and even hypnosis in an attempt to kick the habit. Unfortunately the latter just resulted in Scarlett making chicken noises whenever anyone said the word ‘Collywobbles’. She can usually be found wearing her trusty headphones listening to her beloved hip hop music, however it does make her quite unaware of her surroundings and she can often be found bumping into lamp-posts and ignoring advances from handsome strangers.

Needle-felted Strawberries

The ‘Abominable’ Bartholemew Cox hails from Nevada. His father was a cowboy, as was his father’s father before him. Bartholemew longs to carry on the family tradition but much to his parent’s disappointment, is scared of horses and gets tangled up in his lasso. His passion is skiing, and he ROCKS the slopes! Decked out in his signature cowboy hat and scarf, he’s won every competition in the state. Now, having earned himself the nickname ‘The Abominable Snowman’, he has his eyes set on global domination of the skiing world.

As you saw from yesterday’s post, we had a lot of talented people involved in our wedding day. Not to be outdone, a couple of the guests got in on the act two with some very thoughtful handmade wedding cards.

This one was made by one of the female ushers who adapted this Mario Brothers design to match our colour scheme. A perfect choice what with Mr Monster’s love of computer games and a good match for his Mario inspired tattoos.

This one was stitched by the lovely Amy of Purple Thread Designs in the snatched moments between caring for her new baby, and includes the inscriptions Mr Monster and I have inside our wedding rings.

Excuse my shouty capitals, but this is a post that I feel very strongly about.

Our baby-cat Barney spent a couple of days in the kitty hospital over the weekend after coming into contact with a bunch of lillies. I had been given them as a gift and had a vague idea that they were harmful to cats so put them somewhere which I thought was out of the little one’s reach. I came home from work on Friday to find a big orange smudge on his head. It took me a while to work out what it was, but when I did finally connect it up to the lilly pollen, I thought I’d better call the vets for a bit of advice. I was shocked to be told to bring him straight in. They admitted him and kept him on a drip for 24 hours.

So what are the facts about cats and lillies?

1 – All parts of the lilly flower and plant are poisonous to cats, including the leaves, petals and pollen.

2 – After a cat ingests lilly toxin, they can develop acute kidney failure and die within 3-6 days

3 – Without prompt treatment, most cats who come into contact with lillies die, or need to be put down.

4 – If a poisoned cat receives treatment from a vet within 18 hours, most will recover

Early signs of contact with lillies include vomiting, increased thirst, loss of appetite and lethargy.

I have learnt a valuable lesson and there needs to be more awareness of the risk these beautiful and common flowers pose to our feline friends, so please help me spread the word. Tell your friends, don’t buy lillies for anyone who owns a cat, and get your cat to a vet if they show any of the symptoms listed above.

You may remember a while back, Mr Monster and I introduced a new kitten to the household. It was a tense few days waiting to see if our one year old cat Tilly would bond with him, but looking at what we woke up to one morning this week, we needn’t have worried.

This is Tilly’s spot on the windowsill, and I love how she’s only let him get is front paws on her cushion with his back paws on the hard wooden sill. We wouldn’t want him getting too comfortable now would we!

…paws not claws became the mantra in the monster household this weekend as we welcomed a new kitten to the family.

As you may have seen in an earlier post, we lost our beloved cat Lori a few weeks ago. She was a special cat and totally irreplaceable, so we were adamant that we weren’t going to get another. Our other little girl Tilly has never been alone. We took her from her brothers at eight weeks old, she came home with us and bonded with Lori straight away becoming best friends and partners in crime. Seeing her lost and lonely without Lori was breaking my heart. She looked everywhere for her, and when she couldn’t find her would mew with such sadness. She would bring her favourite ball to us at 3am wanting the play and we would wake up with her curled up between us on the bed. I tried to be patient and I’m sure that eventually she would have adjusted to being on her own, but on Saturday morning I broke down.

Mr Monster, being the kind of chap that he is, made the decision that a new kitten was the only solution for all of us so we got online and found this little bundle.

Meet Barney. So far, we know that he is ten weeks old, has a beautiful little purr, is daft as a brush, and loves to be cuddled. He will eat anything and keeps trying to steal food from our plates and from Tilly’s bowl. His mews sound like he is on helium, and he can jump like no cat I’ve ever seen.

We did lots of research on introducing kittens to older cats and knew that it wouldn’t be a walk in the park but I have to say, it’s been a pretty smooth process. Tilly is a very sociable and playful cat and after the initial little bit of hissing and hiding, she is now accepting the new arrival and starting to join him in playtime. She’s done us proud and is back to her old self again. When we first bought Barney home, we did have a moment of ‘did we do he right thing’, but we now know that we absolutely did, and our family is starting to feel a little bit more complete.

Lori will never be forgotten, in fact Barney is already starting to show some Lori-isms, and is breathing new life into some of the toys she loved when she was a kitten which is reminding us of happy times.

I think I need to come to terms with the fact that I am, and always will be a cat lady!